National Republican., 1887-09-26
CHOOSE YOUR ASSOCIATES.
REV. DIR. TALMAGE's SERMON AT THE
BROOKLYN TABERNACLE.
A Man Is No Better Than tho Company
He Keeps-NIon Should BE Careful to
Avoid Keeping Company with Bad
Men.

BROOKLYN, Sept. 25.-After the great congre-
CATION had sung the long.meter doxology in
the Brooklyn Tabernacle this morning, DR..
Talmage expounded the sixth chapter Of the
second epistle TO the Corinthians, setting forth
the Importance of separation from bad fellow
ship, and saying that a man Is no better than
the company he keeps. Prof Henry Eyre
Brown played on organ solo, sonata No. l, in
d minor, by Guillmant. The subject OF tho
sermon was "a Straight Cp-aud. Down Re.
lieiop," ard the text was Amos vii. v, s-"Aud
the Lord said unto me: Amos, what seest thou?
and said. A plumb line" Dr. Talmage said.
Tho solid masonry Of the world has to me
fascination. Walk about some of the tri-
umpbal arches and the cathedrals, four or six
hundred years old and see them stand as erect
as when they were builded, walls of great
height for centuries, not bending quarter OF
an inch this way or that. So greatly honored
were the masons who builded these walls that
they were free from taxation and called free
masons. The trowel gets most OF the credit
for these buildings, ana its clear ringing on
stone and brick has sounded across the ages.
But there is another implement of Just
and my text recognizes II. Bricklayers,
aud stone masons, and carpenters. In the build.
ing OF walls use an instrument made of a cord,
at the end Of which lump OF lead is fastened.
They drop 1t over the side of the wall, and, as
the plummet naturally seeks the center of
gravity In the earth, the workman discovers
where the wall r.eedes, and where it buges
out, and just what Is the perpendicular Our
text represents God as standing on the wall of
character, which the lsraelites had built and
In that way measuring 1t. And the Lord said
plumb line
What the world wants is a straight upand-
down religion. Much Of the o-caled piety
times. II is horizontal. with u low state Of
sentiment and morals. We have all been
building n wall of character. and II is glaringly
tt,.t. Kf.n a,d Aa1a aRNs sa.x..
shall It be brought into the perpendicular
Only by the divine measurement. "And the
Lord said to me, Amos, what seest thou? And
/ said, A plumb line."
The whole tendency OF the times Is TO make
us act by the standard of what others do II
they MAY cards, we play cards. IL fthey dance.
we dance II they read certain styles Of books
character the tangled plumb line Of other lives
and reject the infdllibie test which Amos saw.
The question for me should not be what you
This perpetual reference to the behavior OF
Others, as though 1t decided anything but hui
man fallibility, Is a mistake as wide as tho
weird. There are 10000 plumb lines In use, but
only one is true and exact, and that is the
line OF Gods eternal right. There is mighty
attempt being made TO reconstruct and fix up
me ten commandmens TO many they seem
thirteen feet from the perpendicular, and peo-
pie go thousands of miles to see Its graceful
inclination, aud by extra braces and various
from century. TO- century. Why not have the
ten granite blocks Of Sinai set a little aslant?
Why not have the pillar Of truth a leaning
square Why is not an obiique as good as
straight up and down? My friends, we must
have standard; shall It be Gods or man's2
over all merchandise. Thousands of years ago
Solomon discovered the tendency of buyers TO
depreeiate goods He saw man beating down
aSk w ha had
purchased al the lowest point he told every
body what sharp bargain he had struck, and
how he had outwitted the merchant. Proverbs
Iaye,h the buyer, but when he IS
Utterly sskew IS society il NtiS the mater
that he expects to get. He puts on higher
value than he proposes to receive. knowing
that he will have TO drop. And If he wants
buyer. "The fabric Is defective; the style of
goods Is poor; can get elsewhere better arti-
fe IS at s%nsr s vii RTf e Il 4 w Hps Of wssF
After awhile the merchant, from over-persua-
tion.or from desire to dispose of that par.
iicular stock Of goods, says We'll. take
home with light step ana calls into his private
office his confidential friends, and chuckles
while he tells how that for half price he got
proud of it,. Nothing would make times as
good, and the earning OF livelihood so easy
as the universal adoption of the law of right
Men who sell know not whether they will
ever get this money. Pur hasers know not
whether the goods shipped Will he according
number OF clerks who are making false entries
al then absconding to Canada. and the ex-
plosion OF firms that fail for millions of dol
lars, honest men are at their wits end to
make living. He VINO stands I'D amid all
the pressure and does right is accomplishing
something toward the establishment OF high
So1bR prosperity have deep SYM
toll with hand and fSot." f" But we must must
not forget the business men who, without any
complaint or hammered professions through
stances terrific. The fortunate people of to.
day are those who are receiving daily wages
on regular, salaries; and the men most to be
pri es are falling and yet try to pay their clerks
and employees and are iu such fearful straits
that they would quit business tomorrow If
II were not for the wreck and ruin OF
others. When people tell me at what ruin
ously low price they purchased an article, 1t
gives me more dismay than satisfaction. I
know II means the bankruptcy and defllca-
who toll with the brain need full as much
sympathy as those who toll with the hand.
All business life Is struck through with sus-
picion; and panics are only the result Of want
The pressure to do wrong is all the stronger
rom the fact that In our day the large business
houses ere swallowing up the smaller-the
large houses undersell the small ones because
they can afford 1t. They can afford to make
nothing, or actually lose, on some styles of
So, q great dry goods house goes outside of its
regular line and sells books at cost or
less than cost, and that swamps the book
at lowest figure, that swamps the small dealer
in brio -a-brac. And the same thing goes on in
other styles OF merchandise, aud the conse-
qnence is that all along the business streets of
GIL our cities there are merchants OF small
capital who are In terrific struggle to keep
their heads above water. The Cunarders run
Gown the Ne foundland fishing smacks. This
Is nothing against the man who has the big
store, for every mar. has as large a store aud as
great a business as he can manage. To feel
right and do right under all this pressure re.
equres Yet stuPRRSrt PtRers
are tens of thousands of such men getting
up and themselves going down, but
courage, and their Christian consistency,
and after O. while their turn of success
win come. The owners of the big business will
business. and with a cigar In their mouth, and
iull TO the chin with the best liquor, aud be-
hind pair OF spanking bays they will pass
and eternal perdition. Then the business
will break up, and the smaller dealers will
have fair opportunity. Or the spirit of con.
teniment and right feeling will take possess
sion OF the large. firm, as recently In the
case Of the great. house of 4. A. Low & Co,
and the firm will say: 1--WE have enough
money for all our needs and the needs OF our
childreni now let us dissolve business and
make way for other men In the same line"
Instead OF being startled at solitary instance
OF magnanimity, as In the case Just mentioned.
II will become common thing. know of
scores of great business houses that have had
their opportunity of vast accumulation, aud
who ought to quit. But perhaps for ali the
days OF this generation the struggle of small
houses to keep alive under the overshadow-
tber, fore, taking things as they are, you will
be wise TO preserve your equilibrium, and your
honesty, and your faith, aud throw over all
the counters, and shelves, and barrels and
hogsheads, and cotton bales and rice casks,
the maasufinp line of divine rIpht sAnd tha